Why I started this blog...

I decided to start this blog as a way of sharing some of the jumbled up hoard of thoughts, ideas and observations that I need to clear out of my head. Also I wanted to leave a sort of chronicle of my lifeand the life of our family for my daughter, Zoey. Most of us never truly know our parents beyond a relatively superficial level. I want to leave more than that for my little girl.

This isn't going to be a blog for everyone. It's a blog for ME, but you're welcome to read along if you're that bored. Why not just keep all this stuff in a private journal? Well, I have one of those too. But some of my unique experiences and lessons I have gleaned along my life journey may be of some use to others, or enlightening for extended family members who don't really know the adult me. In addition, I'm an artist so I see the world differently than most of my family, friends and colleagues and sharing my point of view openly may help enlighten some of those who may not share my particular view of the world. None of us actually see the world in the same way and there is no better education than experiencing life through another's eyes. Plus, I've always been fearful of writing for the public and this blog will act as an exercise in overcoming said fear.

Just a tiny introduction as to who I am for those who haven't come here from my Facebook feed. I'm a 42 year old father of an amazing 3 year old daughter named Zoey. I am an artist and a writer and I spend a great deal of time observing, sketching and recording the world around me, though I don't claim to be a great artist or a particularly talented wordsmith. I have the vocabulary of a 3rd grader and the art talent of Picasso's cat. For a long time I didn't share a lot of what I drew or wrote for fear of being told that it sucked and I'd get frustrated with my creative work because it wasn't perfect. But I'm old enough now to know better. The imperfections of my art define me and if someone out in the world doesn't like it, it's not my problem. We can't be all things to all people.

I read a lot. Seriously, a lot. I usually have at least 9 books going at once and bounce between them depending on my mood (and I'm a tediously slow reader). Classic literature, biographies, history, books on art, lots of great children's literature, but most of all memoirs, diaries and letter correspondence collections (I very seldom read modern bestsellers). There's something about reading exactly what the author was thinking, feeling and experiencing at a particular moment when she wasn't writing and editing for an audience, but writing private thoughts and opinions to herself or in a letter to a friend or relative. So much of what we know about history is found only in letters of correspondence and private journals. Without them we'd be virtually ignorant of our past. One night while I was jotting down some random ideas in my sketch journal, I recognized that I truly wanted to be a part of that assemblage and figured that in the 21st century the best outlet was a blog (although I do realize that this blog will probably be lost amongst the plethora of other blogs out there. Everyone and his third cousin has a blog these days.)

I've been drawing since I was a toddler and attended art school for a short time where I studied animation and illustration, but I realized pretty quickly that although I had a passion for drawing, I was bored to death drawing commercial art and animating feet. But I did keep on drawing in a sketch journal and followed a life-long interest in cartooning and caricature. As I aged I discovered an interest in writing but as my brother was a successful and very talented writer I didn't want to compete with him. Also I had very little passion or talent for writing fiction. I preferred writing in a journal and recording my observations of the world around me AS I SEE IT. I now combine both disciplines of writing and drawing in a private sketch journal; my own unique perspective, recorded and saved for posterity. Perhaps some of the bits of jumbled wisdom in my head (what little there is) may be of some interest to someone else in the internet community. So I'm sharing some of this falderal with the world. Whether or not anyone reads it or gets anything out of it I leave to providence.

Lunch Bag Art

My daughter, Zoey needed a sack lunch for her preschool field trip and my wife suggested I draw a cartoon on it as a surprise. She was ecstatic so I continued to draw on her lunch bag for the rest of her school outings. They got progressively detailed and out of control. But they were fun and Zoey was exultant (well, except for the Box Trolls bag. Though she'd been obsessed with the movie at the time, she was sadly disappointed that that particular bag wasn't of another Disney princess).

On the Day Her Water Broke

On the Day Her Water Broke (A Silly Poem)

{Written while waiting anxiously for my daughter, Zoey to be born.}

The oceans awoke
And birds told jokes
On the day her water broke
The tulips spoke
With James K. Polk
On the day her water broke

The bees drank Coke
While androids smoked
On the day her water broke
The older folks
Watched old Gunsmokes
On the day her water broke

The apples croaked
Under a tyrant's yoke
On the day her water broke
An obnoxious bloke
Was Facebook poked
On the day her water broke

The piano choked
As it played baroque
On the day her water broke
A cat in a cloak
Nearly had a stroke
On the day her water broke

My spleen misspoke
And my poem was revoked
On the day her water broke
The pregnant wife alas awoke
Her bedsheets soaked
On the day her water broke